wabeer1’s thoughts

Been getting some requests to understand how my diet is works. Not that simple as I vary fat, protein and carbs mixes depending on what I am doing. For heavier lifts I add a bit more fat and protein and carbs - all this is dependant on energy levels and also what fitness I am also doing on the day.

I generally try to eat clean and limit alot of high GI and processed foods. Carbs are also scaled back after 6pm, but will have them post workout / fitness sesh if at night.

High level typical diet looks like on a heavy cycle

What about my meal plan:
6.15 pre-workout: AAKG, Glutamine, Beta Alanine
7.45 Post- Workout: Creatine & Muscle Milk
7.45 2 sandwiches (Rye, Sultana, Muesli bread) with honey and butter or nutella
8.00 2 apples of pieces of fruit
8.30 Espresso Coffee
9.00 Big serve of oats with fruit muesli or homemade bircher muesli
9.45 White egg omlete (ham, veggies & cheese, milk and eggs)
10.30 Cashews (2 handfuls), peanuts or wasabi peas
12.30 Big serving of meat, chicken or fish, salad, brown rice or rye bread. Soup and some more cashews
2.00 Espresso Coffee
3.30 Snack 3 Protein Shake / tuna or salmon
5.45 Pre workout mix
7.00 Post workout shake and 2 pieces of rye bread (if I have trained)
7.30 Large meat serving , heaps of veggies, salad (not shy to drizzle olive oil!!)
9.00 L-Glutamine (if body is sore or on fitness days)
11.00 Protein Shake (with milk) or some extra meat serving, Glutamine Luecine and Creatine

In small doses stress is a great thing, it motivates you and let’s you achieve high end results. Turn it up a couple of notches, it can wreck havoc.

I know its a cliche, but you can go from boom to bust in a very short swoop - most can relate to this situation.

This week had every intention of training hard (implemented a new strategy) but life pressures have halted training, reduced motivation and loss of appetite. With  that said, gotta fire back and look past stoopid and trivial things in life.

If I look at my Jan photo..I don’t want to go there again..inspiration enough!! Gonna hit the gym tomoz..watch this space I coming back for blood.

Training restructure, effective today:

Background:-
Lately been doing 1 muscle group per day on a mass system. Adopted the matrix principles and utilise the rep ranges of 10-12, 8, 6 6 - with variations to this. Also weekly, cycle different excercises to keep training fresh. To date this system has worked and results are happening since I have restructured diet (basically was not eating enough).

My mid term goal (hope within 6 weeks) is to get to 80kg at similar body fat levels, no easy task for me as I drive fitness hard and naturally I do not have a build that gains mass easy.

What’s Changing:-
The mass systems will stay unchanged and they will be completed as usual in the morning. I am trying to add at least another 2 sessions a week to account for volume session. Sometimes my training is ad-hoc as I have to juggle work, boxing, homelife and the odd roadblock.

The volume sessions will be split, 2 muscle group with a 10-12 rep range and look to complete them within 45-50 minutes.

I am a big believer that anything more than 1 hour for me its overtraining. With that said, night time training has many challenges, time, too many patrons and sometimes just plain tired- so will try my best to stick to this benchmark

Once again, my biggest issue will be food - I will add extra to accomadate for this additional workouts.

Further details are in my training journal.. feel free to check it out and comment

High level
New goal (to be achieved in 8-12 weeks, 172lbs at 8.00% BF - currently 165 lbs and 8.50%)
What changing: Nutrition changes (more carbs, more protein escpecially post workout\
Rough and ready stats: add at least another 60g-80g of protein a day and at least another 160g of carbs a day \
Meal Plan and commentry to be published later

The rational, history and crazy ideas

Have I gone mad or have I taken one too many cold ‘n’ flu tablets with the above headline..what does it mean. Though I am too scared to weigh myslelf after the flu, energy levels are shot and I have a work fitness challenge next weekend for charity (which I intend to win!),I have set a new goal I have been researching diet and how this has in some ways worked in my transformation and what I really could have done a bit different..better perhaps.

Bottom line:14.5% BF was a tad too high for my liking and caveman type of diet was launched in Feb 09 (basically eat more unprocessed natural type foods and cut back on wheat based products). I did not really experience too much energy loss and still managed to grow some size until I ramped up my boxing and fitness, major hit on mass but hey I was sub 10% - trade off was high but a bit dissapointing that I had lost alot of hard earned mass gains again. Also, I love lifting heavy and the lack of carbs really capped my potential and was getting a bit frustrated.

In early April, a review on supplements meant that I introduced several things I have never done before. I work in marketing and I really can’t  be bothered with all the hype on certain products, I have taken a simple approach of buying supplements in pure form and making my own pre/post work out mix. I think the basics are now right and with this combination I have managed to gain back 4kg back in a month and kick start and improve my weight training regime (for more info - check out my journal post).

Except I am adding another…one product I did retire and counted as a close friend was Luekic - expensive (in OZ) but effective. I use Beta Alanine and now introducing Luecine (both are the key ingridients) post workout…studies support what I am trying to do, I am focussed on lean mass but also sports and I know that Luekic did shelter the loss so thats one more inclusion. Watch this space and let’s see what happens…I know its gonna be good.

The engine room….have I been running the system on leaded petrol when I should have really been running it on Premium Ultra. I placed alot of guidlines on food and results were delivered but one thing is that I did not keep up with the system as I am a sucker for routine, Mon-Fri I eat the sam brekkie and lunch at the same time and really ignored the major boost in boxing and running. Also, a quick snapshot analysis indicates that I was like eating 120g of protein a day and marginal carbs, rough and ready stats - I work out 4-5 times a week, was running 10ks x2 and at least 2-3 boxing sessions a week… news headline, probably needed to be on  a drip. I added back some carbs back last month and boom…my weight is now back at Jan (BF14.5%) weight but I am 8.5% BF now!

I normally do not care much shopping but always interested in what nutrional stat’s on food packets (and the crap that’s in food these days!). I went to the local supermarket and was eyeing off what carb based food I could use in my new revised diet, Dark Rye bread is like 80% wheat free (well this brand anyway) and has 10g of protein and 22g of carbs per serving - all low GI and I dont mind the taste. Bring on some of those choclate looking brown slices of bread. Also, adding more fish (salmon) and the odd brown rice servings at lunch.

My meal plan will be a seperate post but, dinner will still remain a lower carb option & post workout adopting 60g of protein and 80g of carbs minimum.

Stage 1 (up to week 12) was all about getting things right again, place a tick and yeh, objectives achieved. Supplement mix and diet worked well with training and fitness- one happy event.
So, training is about a balance and think my balance is slightly off centre and have realised this soon enough and corrections implemented.
Meal Plan
Moving forward Stage 2 is another matter altogether and have had a couple of items that has posed as stumbling blocks. Lean mass gains will always be a challenge and is a whole heap harder than bulk and cut idealogy (which I don’t want to do given athletic focus and even from motivation view).
Although the system is tracking well - it has slowed slightly at week 14…2 weeks into a new program and really begs the question why and how do I fix it. Disappointed, YES and what are the key issues slowing the system.
Well, meal plan is not supporting training and fitness elements. What I mean by this is that I have energy and feel great but I am not getting mass gains (though I am getting leaner) and my strength has either held or tapered off a bit. I know that I can do better and got to crack the code again. After some soul searching (and advice) and decided to add back some more carb’s back to my diet (good ones like oats and no crap ones like sugary items and bread). A week in, wow strength is tracking back and lets hope that mass will soon follow.  Stats’ wise – currently 72kg (158lbs) and looking to 76kg (167.2lbs) soon enough.
One point to note is that I do at least 3-4 fitness sessions a week which can total up to 6 hours – so have to have a big appetite o support this and can see why this has slowed!
Supplements
At the start of the year I tapped into my knowledge of supplements that have worked for me in the past. I was not really a high end user of them and think that you have to have diet fundamentals right and then you can use supplements to support and increase your results and not the other way round like a lot of people.
What’s in?
BSN Syntha 6 – quiet simply my rock and will not consider another protein powder at this point.
Acetyl L-Carnatine – Excellent for endurance and speed. Use it only before working out or on intense training sessions
L-Glutamine – another great friend, stops catabolic effects and aids recovery. I am very hard on training and can feel this has really managed to safeguard destruction.
What’s out?
Luekic. My anchor that helped me kick start things again but think its time to move on and see what results I can achieve without it. Rationale – don’t want to depend on an expensive supplement to grow and don’t see that is sustainable and goes against my fundamentals of training. 3 months on and great for phase 1 but let’s see how I track for phase 2. Might use later on but a week on, no major deterioration is evident.
Potential Supplements on the horizon (only if I need a short term boost);-
AAKG (L-Arganine). Not into N.O. Explode products as they have caffeine (have too many espresso’s anyway) but AAKG in powder form will be considered if in need. Cheap and cheerful.
Would welcome thoughts and comments if you have any – training is not a perfect science and I do not own a white coat! I think I have the concept right but time will tell my friends..photo’s don’t lie!

I thought I would share what my ab training systems are as I think I have had relative success in this area and seem to get some interest in this area.

So lets start, Abs the final frontier (no I am no Star Trek nerd!) - I have tried alot of different excerises of the years and hittin your 30’s does not mean that they are not achievable. Alot of people don’t see the point but I do, a strong core is important (i.e. why would you want to have lower back problems in life -slipped disks are not fun and I have been had this go wrong when I turned 30!) and also if you are playing sport (boxing), its basically a given. I am about building an athletic build and want my body to be as fluid and strong as possible - and yeh wanna show case my six pack down the beach!

I use alot of training elements from boxing training principles. Another things that works for me (really goes against recent reports), I train abs like 5 times a week after a work out for at least 10 minutes - anything less than this I do not get the desired results. Please give me your thoughts on this as people are split but I can only go own my own results.

System Overview
-Rotate excercises on weekly basis and you have to keep it fresh as these buggers will adapt  very quickly
-Running will also assist in the development and structure. I normally run 1-2 aweek (7-10k’s)
-Boxing will fastrack gains and you need a strong in this area, have you ever seen a boxer with average abs..no?
-Rep range 15-25 depending on the weight and intensity of the excercise
-5 second recovery time between sets (keep this strict)
-Run 3-5 ab excercise in each set and and do 2 different sets in each session. Try to incorporate Set 1, Set 2 & Set 3 excercises on alternative days.
-Diet is like 50% of the end result (refer to my meal plan). Limit processed carbs is the key message!

The fun part..the excercises

Sample of Excercises - choose 2 with medicine ball twist (Sample) - Set 1
*Leg Raised Crunches (Lie on  the ground with hands behind head and legs at 90 deg. Raise head and shoulders up a few inches and hold for a few seconds - Perform 25)
*Ab Leg Raises (Lie on the ground with hands to the side with legs sightly raised. Raise one leg higher and hold and then down to repeat with the other leg - perform 15)
*V Ups (Lie on the ground with arms extended straight out and legs together. Raise upper and lower bodies, extending hand and feet. Hold for a few seconds, then lower to starting position. Perform 25)
*Dumbell Side Bend (4 sets at 20 reps)

Boxinng Inspired (Sample) - Set 2:
*Medicine Ball Twists (go for a minute at with 10kg ball)
*Hook Punch with weights (Keep your elbow hands amd shoulders at the same height, twist into a hool punch. Then reach arm back, keeping it and an even height amd repeat on other side. Perform 25)
*Sit ups with medicine Ball (Start with ball behind your head which is to the ground and crunch in with the stomach and sit up as you bring ball over your head and to your stomach. Perform 25)
*Oblique Sit Ups with Medicine Ball (Start on your side with the medicine ball behind your head and crunch the stomach while sitting up bringing the ball over your obliques. Peform 20).
*Decline Boxing Crunch (with light dumbells, practive jab on 45 degree bench. Perform 25)
*Decline Oblique Crunch (Perform 20)
*Hangin Knee lifts (Perform 10 x3)
*Boxing crunches (no weight and practice the jab. Perform 20)

Fit Ball - Set 3 - Sample (as one big superset x3) - go until it hurts!
Fit ball crunches
Fit ball oblique crunches
Fit ball Boxing Crunch ( with light dumbell)

Hope this gives some insight and drop me a line anytime if you have questions. Thanks for stoppin by and ava good day.

Cheers
P

10% Body Fat Goal Achieved – in advance
Following today’s BF and mass check, my first goal has been achieved – admittedly 2 weeks early. Though not what the final result will be as I am seeking sub 10% (i.e. 7%).
The magic 10% was chosen as it was realistic goal that could be achieved in 10 -12 weeks post the Christmas eating /drinking binge and my inherited Christmas mono-ab (rather than abs…). I am at a similar mid 20’s body level and happy with the achievements.
 
For me, life is all about trying to be the best you can be and sometimes gotta accept that you will never be the biggest or best but you least gotta try to be the best that I can be.
I set living to maximum every day and enjoy waking up thinkin what crazy things I can do (am I ADD, probably?) – most of friends call me the tornado as they don’t know what’s coming next.
Too many of my friends these days are stuck in ruts and are negative– you gotta live and grab any opportunity you can, sometimes I way below my punchin weight but never gonna quit if you are hungry enough!!
This whole self challenge resulted from the hangover of last year bad fitness /training regime and looking and a desire for quick performance results, might have worked when I was 20 but not today.
Coupled with a sedatory white collar job and an inclination to polish off a couple of muffins a day, I was staring down the road to eventual training self destruction and for the 1^st time feeling my age (which I have never thought would happen and believe I still do not look). OMG, I was even using the same anti inflammatory’s as my folk!!
Key Learning’s:
You can train smarter and not harder. Workouts limited to 45 minutes and have achieved better results. Don’t talk or muck around too much at the gym these days!!
AB & core training should be the cornerstone of any program
Motivate yourself and other will follow
Fruit and veggies are your friend, muffins are not.
Changes to diet should be permanent and weight loss can be supported by not using things like Hydroxycut
Processed carb’s really upset your stomach and well being balance
Train with like minded people at a similar or better level.
Be open to accept advice and share your enthusiasm
The Challenges:
Stress – welcome to modern living. For me, training and the beach provide a contra escape.
Friends – Most of my friends are not into training and fitness – have tried to motivate them to achieve with some level of success.
Italian food – When I visit mum’s house and a plate of pasta (a serving for 4) is in front of me – can’t say no as I would have committed the greatest sin and gone against the family. Why are Italian mum’s not happy until you look like the Michelin man…lol.
Growing up in the old Food Pryamid 1980’s ideology – carbs is good – too much protein is bad…what was all that about and probably explains why people thought mullets and acid jeans were cool.
Were to from here?
 

This program probably has at 3-4 weeks left in it and will tie in with a stressful work trip that will be a challenge given relative market circumstances. By then, hopefully I would have continued the cutting up and gaining a bit more. My training buddy is achieving similar results and phase 2 will focus more on bulk. By then it will be colder and my buddy would have returned back from holidays.
Phase 2 will revolve around introducing the German Volume Method and will focus on further bulk and strength gains. Need to do more research and would welcome thoughts and comments.
I doubt my BF will increase as I committed to healthy living now.
What about the fitness:
Business as usual – 1-2 solid runs a week (8-10k’s)
Boxing – big learning curve again but glad that I have athelic ability and strength. Flexibility is a bit of an issue!!
Beachy stuff, body boarding and running – have at least 1-2 months left of good weather
Maybe thinking about entering an Amateur Rowing comp or hittin Kayaking in colder months.